Speaker of the Sri Lanka Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena unveiled a portrait of Sir D.B. Jayatilaka, Sri Lanka’s first representative to India, today (28) at the High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi, coinciding with the 80thanniversary of the establishment of modern Indo-Lanka relations.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) sending Sir D.B. Jayatilaka as its first Representative to India in 1942. Unveiling the portrait of Sir D.B. Jayatilaka at the Chancery Building comes as one of a series of activities organized by the High Commission of Sri Lanka in New Delhi this year to mark the important anniversary. Earlier, in February, the High Commission named its Chancery Building after Sir D.B. Jayatilaka.
Parliamentarians C.B. Rathnayake, Rohini Kumari Wijeratne and Secretary General of Parliament Dhammika Dasanayake also attended the simple ceremony organized to unveil the portrait. The Sri Lankan Parliamentary delegation led by the Speaker were in transit in Delhi on their way back to Sri Lanka from an international conference.
High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India Milinda Moragoda and the staff of the High Commission were present on this occasion.
Sir Don Baron Jayatilaka, Statesman, Buddhist Educationalist, Barrister, pioneering literary figure of his era and one time Home Minister of Ceylon, had graduated from the Universities of Calcutta and Oxford. Sir Baron had first come to India to negotiate food shipments to Ceylon by the Government of India, and was later appointed as the first Representative of the Government of Ceylon to New Delhi.
The appointment of Sir D.B. Jayatilaka as Ceylon’s Representative to India, which pre-dates the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between independent India and Sri Lanka in 1948, stands testimony to the very special bond and close relationship that the two countries have been enjoying since time immemorial.
It should be highlighted that Sir. D.B Jayatilaka wasn’t only the Home Minister he was also the Leader of the State Council / Leader of the House from 1931 – 1942, until he was requested by the British Gorvenorto represent Ceylon in India in order to facilitate solutions to the food crisis with the support of India as the country was facing due to the World War. In the State Council system Leader of the State Council / Leader of the House was a position equivalent to the position of Prime Minister under a Parlimentry system…
Also, the State Council members were the first to be appointed by way of Universal franchise, the voting rights of the people. Therefore, Sir. D.B Jayatilaka is the first leader of the country to be elected and appointed by the voting rights of the people…